Larry Bell - Fractions

Larry Bell Fractions are a series of work created from the artist's desire to utilize previously unresolved material.

Larger vapor drawing collage pieces on canvas from the 1980s were cut up and re-assembled into smaller collage compositions on paper, with hand painted elements of watercolor added to finish them off.

These early Fractions, from 1996, are some of the first produced in what became a successful series.

Larry Bell working at his high vacuum vessel, in studio 2020

Fraction #1263, 10” x 10”, mixed media on paper, 1996 Image 1

Larry Bell, born in 1939, lives and works between Los Angeles, CA and Taos, NM. He has exhibited widely, including the group exhibitions ‘Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Doug Wheeler’, Tate Britain, London (1970); ‘11 Los Angeles Artists’, Hayward Gallery, London (1971) and ‘Phenomenal’, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (2011). Solo exhibitions include the Pasadena Art Museum, California (1972); Fort Worth Art Museum, Dallas, Texas (1975 and 1977); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1986); Denver Art Museum, Colorado (1995) Carré d’Art Musée d’art Contemporain de Nîmes, France (2011) and The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas (2014).

"I began cutting up the collages on canvas into smaller bits to discard. I was attracted to the fact the little shards were much more interesting than the whole of the compositions. I began recombining the parts and before I knew it a new series was born. The name "Fractions" seemed an appropriate way to describe the works."

- Larry Bell In a letter to Rena Rosequist, Dated May 19, 2000

Fraction #1003, 10 x 10”, mixed media on paper, 1996 Image 2

Fraction #2052, 10 x 10”, mixed media on paper, 1996 Image 3

Fraction #2184, 10 x 10”, mixed media on paper, 1996 Image 4

Fraction #2079, 10 x 10”, mixed media on paper, 1996 Image 5

Fraction #1039, 10 x 10”, mixed media on paper, 1996 Image 6

Fraction #2059, 10 x 10”, mixed media on paper, 1996 Image 7

Fraction #1120, 10 x 10”, mixed media on paper, 1996 Image 8

Fraction #1105 , 10 x 10”, mixed media on paper, 1997 Image 9

Fraction Ellipse 739, 10 x 10”, mixed media on paper, 1997 Image 10

Fraction #2038 , 10 x 10”, mixed media on paper, 1997 Image 11

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